BURSA MALAYSIA TURNS LOWER AT MIDDAY

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia turned lower at the midday break due to continued selling activities in selected heavyweight stocks, especially those in the telecommunications and media, utilities, and financial services sectors.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) dipped 2.03 points, or 0.13 per cent, to 1,609.40 from yesterday’s close of 1,611.43. It opened 1.22 points higher at 1,612.65.

The index moved between 1,607.88 and 1,615.93 during the morning trading session.

Nevertheless, the market breadth was positive, with gainers outpacing decliners 445 to 435, while 526 counters were unchanged, 1,070 untraded and 13 suspended.

CelcomDigi eased 6.0 sen to RM3.59, Petronas Gas lost 32 sen to RM17.38 and Public Bank lost 3.0 sen to RM4.51. These counters dragged the composite index down by a combined 3.27 points.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said that following news that a second wave of floods is expected to hit the country, it believes there will be more trading volatility ahead for plantation counters, as floods are expected to lift crude palm oil (CPO) prices on supply concerns.

"Traders can also find opportunities in the data centre midstream industries under the technology sector, such as IT solutions, cybersecurity, hard disk drives, electronic manufacturing services (EMS) and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test, spurred by the commencement of data centre construction earlier this year.

"Lastly, as we are approaching year-end, window dressing effect might also happen to certain blue chip counters," it said. 

Among other heavyweights, CIMB slid 4.0 sen to RM8.14, Maxis was down by 5.0 sen at RM3.45, MR D.I.Y. lost 4.0 sen to RM1.82 while Petronas Chemicals rose 29 sen to RM5.10 and Axiata put on 4.0 sen to RM2.40. 

Of the active stocks, Top Glove gained 4.0 sen to RM1.37, Supermax Corporation expanded 4.0 sen to RM1.07, JCY International inched up half-a-sen to 48.5 sen while Velesto Energy and KNM Group were flat at 16 sen and 6.5 sen, respectively.   

On the broader market, the FBM 70 Index put on 32.50 points to 18,419.96, the FBM Emas Shariah Index improved 9.55 points to 12,344.76 and the FBM ACE Index advanced by 36.53 points to 5,303.35.

However, the FBM Emas Index lost 2.63 points to 12,328.91 and the FBMT 100 Index slipped 4.40 points to 12,011.32 

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 1.41 points to 176.09, the Financial Services Index erased 21.76 points to 19,082.78, the Energy Index inched down 0.20 of-a-point to 823.52 and the Plantation Index shed 37.23 points to 7,714.61.  

-- BERNAMA